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Comment by JCattheATM | Hacker News Reader

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> For the most part he's not making streets safer, but just costing people money.

It's not just a fine when caught using your phone while driving, it's also 6 penalty points (of a maximum 12). Being caught a second time (or if you are within 2 years of earning your license) results in a ban from driving for 6 months.

People who are caught once will likely think twice about using their phone again, not wanting to risk the ban.

That doesn't make anything better. No one deserves points for checking a phone briefly while a vehicle is stopped at a red light. In the long run, problems like Mikey sort themselves out - Darwin at work.

If no one deserves points for checking a phone briefly while a vehicle is stopped at a red light, then either the police can decide not to act on video footage showing someone doing this, or the law should be changed.

Sure, the law should be changed, and I'm sure the police frequently do decide to ignore it. But then you have this dipshit vigilante endangering himself, causing tension and handing them a free win (i.e. free money), so of course they take it.

Two things can be true: checking a phone while stopped hurts nobody and should not be illegal. Driving the wrong way in an intersection and nearly hitting a cyclist is dangerous and this activity should be curbed.

These are two separate, unrelated things, so them both being true is no surprise.

I agree. Which is why the second scenario should be considered in your analysis of this Youtuber, not just the first.

If he was only harassing people who were actually a danger, there wouldn't be much to complain about. But he isn't, he'll harass whoever he can for clicks and ego.

I lean toward your understanding of the topic but experience discomfort toward your framing, which implies a desire or at least apathy to the harm of this Youtuber.

This content creator is undoubtedly seeking conflicts with people and shrouding it in concerns for traffic safety.

Furthermore, most driving fatalities are spatially correlated— road design influences driver behavior more than other factors.

However, there is merit to noxious individuals raising an issue to the level of public consciousness.

It is also possible that the trajectory of traffic calming measures is already good in the UK and would not benefit from additional public exposure.

> experience discomfort toward your framing, which implies a desire or at least apathy to the harm of this Youtuber.

Apathy certainly, because:

> This content creator is undoubtedly seeking conflicts with people and shrouding it in concerns for traffic safety.

My attitude then, is that whatever happens he brought on himself.

i would like to refer anyone who calls cyclists "entitled" to this comment

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